I approve most comments on my blog, but I don’t accept spam or comments advertising for other companies. I also don’t accept comments promoting your website. Comments must be relevant to the post. Leaving a comment just asking me to check your site is awkward for both of us. It’s like soliciting. I know it’s tough getting traffic, especially if you’re just starting. We’ve all been there. If you want me to check your site, please include the link in the appropriate field and I will check it out. (On a further note, please see q&a below about link exchanges.) I also don’t approve comments that are just plain rude.

No. Like asking me to check your site in a comment, link exchanges are thought to help boost your traffic or popularity with more link-backs but that’s not how it really works. Not to mention it places the pressure of obligation of reciprocating on both of us. If I love your blog, I’ll add yours to my blogroll. If you love my blog, you’ll add mine to your blogroll. No obligations, no pressure. (For more info about why link exchanges are a bad idea, read this post.)

P.S. You don’t have to ask me permission to add my blog to your blogroll.

At this time I am still building my audience, so I am currently not accepting guest posts from other bloggers at this time or any form of freelance writing. I may, however, feature other bloggers whom I admire at my own discretion, as well as friends or family members who may want to share a recipe on my blog.

All ads on Z’s Cup of Tea are with WordAds, WordPress.com’s advertising program with Federated Media Publishing. (Announced in this post.) See the WordPress.com Support article here for more information or the WordAds website. If you should see an ad that you don’t agree with, take a screenshot of the offending ad (here’s how to take a screenshot) and email it to me at contact@zscupoftea.com and I will get in touch with the WordAds team.

I’m a company/client representative and was wondering if you accept products to review or for giveaways?

Yes. I accept products, including cookbooks, for review that supports my message and meets my criteria and that I think my readers would enjoy. Email me about your product and I will accept it for consideration. To get an idea of products I have reviewed in the past, please see my reviews index. Please note that I’m in Canada, so only offer to send products or samples if you or your company can ship it to Canada, should you or your company be based in another country.

I will not review cookbooks or products that promote calorie counting or weight loss. This is not what I write about on Z’s Cup of Tea.

If you are a representative of a client, please clearly outline what your client offers in your email so that we can all be on the same page at the same time.

All your recipes used to be dairy-free, but now sometimes you use dairy like butter or goat milk yogurt. Why?

The majority of my recipes are dairy-free. The decision for my recipes to be dairy-free initially was based on my family following SCD to help my brother’s recovery from autism. Some forms of dairy are allowed on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), but in the case of autism, it is not allowed at all. Over time, my brother has become able to have small amounts of butter and he’s also tried feta cheese and has goat milk yogurt as a treat on occasion.

Depending on the recipe, staples I often use include coconut oil or grapeseed oil, or a mixture of the two, coconut milk, or this custard recipe, which I have used before instead of yogurt. You’ll notice that a number of my early recipes rely on coconut oil.

Though I believe in eating a balanced and nutritious diet, I don’t count calories or calculate the nutrition content or nutritional value of the recipes I make. If you wish to know the nutritional value of a given recipe, there are many nutrition calculators available online.

Yes! I have been working on making recipes on Z’s Cup of Tea to be more printer friendly and after a lot of trial and error, I think I’ve found a solution using Scribd. This is still a work in progress, since I’m doing it manually and on my own time, although most of the recipes on Z’s Cup of Tea now have a printer friendly option.

Yes, as long as you provide a link back to the post with the recipe (a permalink; instead of linking to the main URL, zscupoftea.com) and it is written in your own words. Do not simply copy and paste a recipe and or post in its entirety. If you wish to use any photos, please contact me first for permission or use your own photos.

If you’re sharing a link to one of my posts/recipes on a social network and want me to see it, please include my handle in your tweet, Facebook post, or Google+ post (the three I’m currently using).

Why aren’t you gluten-free? You make and post gluten-free recipes so I was surprised to learn that you eat all of the allergens that your blog is “free” of.

I can and do eat gluten, dairy, and sugar but only when I’m on an outing, including staying at a friend’s or relative’s, and there aren’t options that are gluten, dairy, or sugar-free. At home I generally eat what I blog and that is ultimately how I prefer to eat. I’m lucky in the sense that I don’t have any allergies or sensitivities, or at least none that I’m aware of – although I do sometimes feel depressed for no reason almost immediately if I have had too much wheat – so I have the unique privilege of being a flexitarian in how I eat. More often than not, I am inspired to make a version that is safe to eat for my brother and that’s suitable for my blog.

Initially it was from family and friends telling me I should write a cookbook. Instead, I started this blog to document and share recipes that I had made or adapted for my brother recovering from autism. (Read more on the about page.) I want to help people and share with them that they can have their cake and eat it, too, and give confidence in the kitchen – for an example, such as being able to make marshmallows without a stand mixer or KitchenAid.